#4 Virginia Tech @ #19 Georgia Tech:

TV coverage: ESPN2 6pm (in HD)

Announcers: Mark Jones and Coach Bob Davie
Vegas Line: VT-3, O/U=52

Has anyone ever seen Cyrano Jones and Coach Paul Johnson in the same room at the same time? Captain Kirk and I did not think so. Coach Paul Johnson: I respect your service to our country at the Naval Academy. However, did you have to call our defense: “…jokers…”???

That said; they do not get any bigger than this one inside the friendly confines of the A.C.C. and more importantly as an intra-Coastal Division match-up goes. The kicker here is that it is the home-standing Yellow-Jackets or Wrambling Wreck of Georgia Tech that have their backs pressed firmly against the A.C.C. championship game wall. Thanks to playing 3 games in 12 days the Yellow-Jackets were left stinging by the L they took from the Miami Hurricanes earlier this year.

Our Hokies are between a MNC rock and an A.C.C. hard place. We already have 1 L on our docket ourselves. A second L would 100% eliminate any MNC hopes and leave the famous Jamerson Athletic Center trophy case with a O&M “vacant” sign illuminated for yet another year. Further, taking an L from GT surely muddies the A.C.C. Coastal waters for everyone and would put our A.C.C. championship game bid into some measure of jeopardy.

Official Prediction Thread link!

Ergo, this truly is a must win for both teams.
Buckle your chin-strap.
Ante up and kick-in.
This one is gonna be brutal O.K. Coral offensive shoot out. Last unspent bullet … wins.

Top-10:

1. Four-one-nine. As in Cody Grimm has logged 419 plays for VT thus far. More than anyone else.
2. Two. As in Via, Lanier and Graham have all played in 2 games apiece. Whereas the
   

   Buzzing 'round your hive. -Jim Morrison-

   Paint-Shop (Vincent Painter) has yet to open for D-1 business.

3. Three. As in the first 3 series are gonna tell the tale. We need at least one quality defensive stand to boost our Rookie Linebackers up.
4. One hundred twenty-four. 124 non-offensive TD’s for VT under Frank Beamer all-time.
5. Trivia. 5 Letters that ask how many D-1 football schools are “Techs’? It’s at least two…
6. Sixty. As in three different Hokies have caught throws of 6o yards or more. First time since 2000.
7. Seven. As in 7 different Hokies have snagged throws that went for at least 20 yards. No longer is our offense: “inert”.
8. Eighty-one. As in GT RUNS 81% of the time!
9. Nine. As in 9 of the 11 people who have scored TD’s for VT this year are Underclassmen! Freshman and sophomores have scored an amazing 24 out of VT’s 26 TD’s on the seasons. (thank you FrankismyHomie)
10. Ten. As in VT has only given up 10 points in the 3rd Quarter this year.

Intricacies of the GT Flex-Bone Offense:

• Kinda sorta 3 full-time Running-Backs (Rb’s). That’s one (Quarterback) Qb, one Fullback (Fb) and two Wingbacks (Wb’s) or A-back’s in the Georgia Tech play-calling nomenclature.
• Wide splits. Sometimes out two 3 yards which helps create natural A-Gap or Zero or One holes
  

  2-3 yard splits!

  for the foundation of it all … the Belly-Play. The Belly is the initial hand-off or retraction of same from the Qb to the Fb right up the gut. (see pic)

• Chop-Blocks and you’d better find the best knee brace available. I’d be wearing a knee-sleeve and asking if a twin hinged knee brace could be had for this one.
• This year P.J. has really broken out the entire Triple-Option play-book … adding Counters, Reverses and Trap-Blocking in addition to last years set of base plays which was not all that large when counted one by one mind you.
• Coach P.J. -unlike most other offensive wizards- does not believe in scripting plays. He just wings it as play-calling goes on the fly. Which hurts tendency analysis of opponents in no small way.

Which do you want first? The good news or the bad news? Lets get the bad outta the way. My ATL contacts gave me this disturbing nugget on Wednesday afternoon. “Our (GT’s) offensive line is playing their best ball of the year right now. Possibly in the last several years.” WOW! I so  did not need to hear that. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that our Run-Defense has improved to only allowing 47.3 yards per game in

our last three games. This after opening the year via allowing three consecutive opposing rushers to crack the century mark on us. During our last 12 quarters of play we have held opposing runners to 1.5 per carry. Which would be good for first place in rushing defense; 8/100th’s ahead of Texas thank you very much.

However; those vitals (stats) have been amassed at home in the slop vs. Miami. On the road vs. a very pass happy Dukie football squad, and then back in Lane vs. a feckless Boston College. i.e. those digits are impartial to circumstance; and even though the VT Run Defense has improved, it is still only ranked 48th vs. opposing ground attacks. That 48th ranking is the far more deliberate metric here folks. How will rookie Linebackers Jake and ‘Quell (and Gibby for that matter) maintain their assignment discipline vs. the  a GT Triple Option rushing attack that is averaging a first down plus 1.6 bonus yards for any given two rushing attempts on the year? Now mix in a 4th ranked Passing Efficiency offense from the Wrambling Wreck and one Wideout (D.Thomas) who is killing opposing defenses that honor the run full-time with a 24 yards per catch. Nesbitt (now) reminds me quite a bit of r.marshall of wvu fame. Great runner; very middleocore thrower overall -2009 is his first time above 50% on this career- who just so happens to throw the deep ball very well just like r.marshall did way back when. That’s gonna be a problem, and GT is gonna get at least 2o points for it.

Finally, GT’s first Offensive play from scrimmage thus far this year has been:

• 13 yard completion
• Pass INT
• Penalty on a pass call
• Qb Draw
• 1 yard run
• Incomplete pass attempt

We so do not need GT to open up with all guns blazing on their first couple of offensive series folks. That would put Jake and ‘Quell on mental skates all night long and critically infringe upon their Flex-Bone cognitive recognition abilities. The GT offensvie start will go a long long way in determination of this Saturday’s outcome as GT is 7th best in converting 3rd Downs this year. i.e. we need to stop them early and try to disrupt their offensive rhythm in anyway we can.

X’s and O’s of the GT Defense:

On the other side; any defense that is forced to morph itself from a semi-traditional 4-2-5 into a 4-3 or even a 3-4 look since spring time because of injuries is not a defense that I favor to be extremely effective. I’m told coach P.J. is going to limit his substitutions and rotations this week in an effort to simplify things down in the ATL. The possibility of few substitutions raises the possibility of more fatigue for the Yellow-Jacket starters later on; consider that as well. He’d better do something as he is facing a VT offense that has not had this much confidence in a number of years. Prolly going all the way back to late 2004 in fact. The Yellow-Jacket defense is nimble and athletic; though somewhat reminiscent of parts of our very own 2009 stop-unit; in that that athleticism is not helping if you are out of position, making bad reads, and being somewhat contact shy when it comes to being physical. i.e. GT’s front-7 is not exactly made of teflon at the point of attack.

Then there is the fact that the Wrambling Wreck is not getting any better on defense of late. In

their last 3 games GT is allowing 4.7 per rush and 8.4 per throw. For contrast we/VT are averaging 4.7 per rush and 9.9 per throw on the year and that 9.9 on the season is more like a whopping 14.7 per throw in our last three games. In other words these are two passing trains in the night. One moving in a better direction (VT’s offense); and one that can not find the break lever and is living up to its Wrambling Wreck nickname in no small way.

Then there is this … GT is only 74th in Sacks as a defense goes. And only 97th in TFL. Now consider that stud De D.Morgan has 65% of those Sacks and just under 50% of GT’s Tackles for a Loss (TFL). So why not put Smith, our best pure blocking Tight-End (Te) over on his side full-time? Or even better, go to our jumbo overload and use both Te’s on D.Morgan’s side? Morgan is playing every single snap (due to De attrition) and he has shown signs of fading late in games. #91 D.Morgan tends to line up on the GT left-side or just outside of DeChris from a Hokie point of view. That’s not good as DeChris tends to struggle with footwork at times. So why not give him some help from Smitty and “Boooooooooone”? Further, TT’s half roll-out’s tend to roll right. Right into D.Morgan.

This all conspires to tell me that we really need to focus our offensive attention with play-calling to our left-hand side. T-mobile is the best thrower against the grain -to his left, or non-passing shoulder- I’ve ever seen on the VT campus. Wang and Serg are playing better and better week by week and they could stand to be uncovered (with no Te) a lot better than DeChris could as he must play his best game ever vs. D.Morgan. The starting Weakside Linebacker (WLb) for GT is also out for the year. He was 3rd in tackles last year and as such is no small departure for GT. His vacated spot is also no small bull’s-eye for the Frank-n-Stiney offense that is now revolving at a much higher caliber than in previous seasons.

Conclusions, illation, and prediction:

The sexy new VT offense looks like it can out skill you. Do not fall into that trap on the road where Frank-n-Stiney tend to move towards the right-wing or a move conservative play-calling visitor if you will. The need here is to not out-skill GT; our imperative is to out WILL the Wrambling Wreck. We must impose our running-game will in order to milk the game-clock down in the ATL for all it is worth. Keep that GT tricked out offense sitting for as long as possible; which not coincidentally will sit our rookie Linebackers (’Quell and Jake) who have never faced the Flex-Bone at full speed before. As often as I have witnessed Jake and ‘Quell over-pursue and struggle at shedding blocks thus far this season (in that order personnel wise); I am left disinclined to come in here and tell all of you just how epicly they will perform in their first audition vs. the vaunted Flex-Bone offense of GT at first blush. If I were P.J. I’d run away from Cody (who has Flex-Bone experience) all day long and make Jake and ‘Quell make as many mental gridiron decisions as I possibly could.

Happy Hokie birthday to Head Football Coach Frank Beamer!

It is curious to me to note that GT Qb Nesbitt is totting the football 21.3 times per game this year on average; compared to 15.4 carries per game last season on average. Why do I bring this up you ask? Because more carries means less Pitch-Outs and the potential for misQ’s or outright Turnovers on such. Check it out…

In 2009 GT is:

• averaging 2.83 fumbles per game
• with 1.16 of them lost or recovered by the opponent per game on average

In 2008 GT was:

• averaging 2.79 fumbles per game
• with 1.53 of them lost or recovered by the opponent per game on average

In other words the GT pigskin integrity has only nominally improved despite being in their second year of the fumbling prone Flex-Bone option offense. What has improved is GT’s luck. Will that continue? Because the tempo of mishandled pitches from GT or bad meshes on the Belly-Play hand-off from Nesbitt to Dwyer has not improved anywhere near as much as I had expected it to at this stage.

Then there is this little nugget. Guess who is only 100th in Red Zone Offense despite being 4th in Rushing Offense and 24th in Total Offense overall? GT? You bettcha. The Flex-Bone becomes easier to defend as the field compresses vertically, which puts a premium on horizontal speed which VT’s stop-unit has. This vertical compression also takes away Nesbitt’s pretty savvy long-ball HR throws. Nesbitt is simply not the champ at any Qb camp when it comes to the old throw the ball threw the hanging Tire Drill; as accuracy is not his forte.  So what does all of that mean?

It means that our rookie Linebackers will get burnt. They will yield a handful of long plays. The primary key will be can our secondary run down their mistakes? If they can that segues us into the secondary key. From above, we know that GT is only 100th in Red Zone offense this year. That means that our secondary key -and this could be the key to our B.C.S. hopes- is one freaking word … composure!

If you were Bud Foster, the one thing you take away at all costs is... Dwyer on the classic up the gut Belly-Play. Nesbitt on any Qb Keeper. Either Wingback on their outside HR runs. View Results  Loading ...

GT may hit a few home runs (pun intended) outta historic Grant Field. However, stay dialed in. Do not get down on yourself. Do not let go of Foster’s schematic rope, and most of all do NOT get frustrated! Dust yourself off, get yourself back in the fight mentally; and as I said above, live in the play, not in the past. IF our rookies can stay composed vs. the helter-skelter Flex-Bone option sets of GT -and if is the middle word in life- we do have at least a mild manpower edge across the board. Possible more than that in fact. I like that; and I like what I’ve gotten from practice this week. If our newbies on defense stay composed for 60 minutes, we can win a shoot-out late in the 4th quarter. If not, GT’s triple-option will drop us like Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton. Are Jake and ‘Quell McLaury and Clanton? Or are they Doc Holiday and Wyatt Earp? My money is on the card-player and the law-dog, in a very high scoring offensive gunfight that will delight the suits at ESPN2 courtesy of some additional late-game heroics from T-mobile.

Virginia Tech=34, Georgia Tech=3o

“LETS GO!”

“HOKIES!”

b’street

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